Water-meter



vUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J. CURTIS AND S. I-IOARD, OF CHICAGIO, ILLINOIS.

WATER-METER.

Specication of Letters Patent No. 13,198, dated July 3, 1855.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES CURTIS and SAMUEL HOARD, of Chicago, in thecounty of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented an Improved Meterfor Tater and other Liquids; and we do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and eXact description of the same, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specication, inwhich- Figure l, is a vertical section of the meter, and Fig. 2, asection of a portion of the same taken at right angles to Fig. 1, in theline of that figure.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both gures.

A, A, may be two separate cylinders 0r chambers, or two compartments ofthe same box, of metal or other material being in any case of equalsize, but we propose to make them of two upright cylinders of glasssecured between and closed at the ends by suitable heads of' metal. Boththese cylinders or chambers communicate at the top with the same inletchest B, which receives the water or other fluid from the inlet pipe C,whose mouth is furnished with a dip trap a, and both communicate atthebottom with siphons D, and D', one for each, with the outlet chest E, towhich is connected the outlet pipe F. There is also direct communicationbetween the cylinders through a pipe J, at the top, shown dotted in Fig.1, and in section in Fig. 2, which serves as an air passage. Theentrances to the cylinders or chambers A, A, are fitted with inletvalves Y), b', one for each, the said valves being attached to oppositeends of a lever G, working within the inlet chest one of the said valvesbeing always open for the entrance of water into its respective cylinderor chamber and the other closed. The valves b, b', are also connected toother levers I-I, H', working within their respective cylinders orchambers and to the opposite ends of the said levers, t-he outlet valvesc, and 0, of the respective cylinders or chambers, which are fitted tothe entrances to the siphons, are connected by long rodsal, and d. Theabove arrangement of valves enables all to be balanced by the pressureof the water and causes the outlet of either cylinder or chamber to beclosed when the inlet is open and vice versa, and the correspondingvalves of the two cylinders or chambers to be at all times in oppositeconditions. The rods d and al, are fitted with loose pivots I, I, whichslide loosely upon them and each carries a fianch or collar e, near itstop against which its float strikes to operate the valves.

The meter operates by filling the cylinders or chambers alternately withwater transferring the air from the o-ne being lilled into the other,and employing the said air as a piston to be acted upon by the incomingwater in the one cylinder to e'Xpel the water from the other. In Fig. l,of the drawing the cylinder A, has just been filled and A, discharged,and the valves to have been just brought into position to fill A', anddischarge A, the water from the inlet chest B, entering the formercylinder by the open valve and as it risesdriving out the air abovethrough the pipe J, into the upper part of the cylinder A, to force outthe water below it by the open valve c, from whence it passes throughthe siphon D, to the outlet chest E, and' outlet pipe F. By the time thewater is all expelled from A, the water-level in A, will have risen sofar as to bring the float I, into contact with the collar e, on theoutlet valve rod d', and its buoyancy assisted by the weigh-t of thefloat I, in the empty cylinder will lift the rod d, and depress the rodCZ, thereby reversing the conditions of the whole of the valves andcausing the cylinder A, to fill and the air in the upper part to bedriven back into A, t'o discharge the water therefrom through the siphonD.

In order to protect the water company, or for other reasons, to stop theoperation of the meter if the valves do not operate properly, we providea float valve f, in each cylinder at the entrance to the pipe J. Thesevalves while the meter is in proper operation being never reached by thewater, keep open as shown in Fig. l, by their own weight but when thevalves fail to operate the water rises in the receiving cylinder, andfloats its valve f, which soon closes the pipe J, thus effectuallystopping the flow of water through the meter.

To commence the operation of the meter it is necessary to hold thevalves in position for the entrance of water into one cylinder till thesaid cylinder is nearly full, for which purpose and for setting thevalves, two screw plugged holes are made in the bottom of the meter atg, g, under the valves c, 0. These will be sealed by the water company.

The valves we employ in this meter are made as shown at c', in Fig. l,by distending a piece of india-rubber z', in a conical form between theperiphery of a disk y', and a central stem, the disk being perforated toadmit water to the inner side of the indiarubber to press it closely tothe seat.

The consumption of water or other liquid is to be registered andindicated by such a system of gearing and indices as is commonlyemployed in meters, the same receiving motion from the rocker of thelever Gr, or from any part of the valve mechanism.

Having thus described our invention we will proceed to state, what weclaim and desire to secure by Letters Patent.

l. Though we do not claim the invention of a meter composed of t-wocylinders or chambers of which one is filled while the other isdischarged, we claim the employment of two chambers having suchcommunication with each other that the incoming water entering eachcylinder or chamber, in its turn will eXpel a volume of air previouslycontained therein, and drive it into the other cylinder or chamber, andcause the said air to act as a piston to separate from the incomingwater and to discharge through the agency of the pressure thereof, thewater in the other cylinder or chamber substantially as hereindescribed.

2. Though we do not claim the invention of a float valve to shut off theflow of a iuid through a meter in case of the parts becoming deranged,we claim litting a float valve f, to each end of the pipe J, throughwhich the air is transferred from one to the other of the two measuringcylinders or chambers, substantially as herein described, so that inwhichever cylinder the water should rise above its proper level byreason of the derangement of the inlet and outlet valves the 'pipe J,will be closed and the flow of water stopped.

JAMES CURTIS. SAML. HOARD. Titnesses A. M. NELSON, JOHN lV. JACKSON.

